Whoever earnestly seeks, will surely find. I have found that it is true that if we abide in Jesus, our Heavenly Master, and let His words sink in until they've changed us through and through, His presence in us will bring great freedom and everlasting joy.
Join me in this pursuit of increasing depths of truth, freedom and authenticity.

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Rachem, Rachem, Rachem! (Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!)

The Lord has been impressing many messages on my heart, and
the one I’m going to share is a very important lesson that has taken many years
for me to grasp (and I’m only just beginning to get it).

Here I am, on a Saturday, with YouTube playing songs of
praise and worship, and then this one comes in and touches my heart.

And as the song plays, I find this is the kind of song that when you listen to it, you need to replay...
and replay... and replay...

Things are getting worse and worse. Those of us who have had
our eyes opened understand that “We know that we are of God, and the whole
world lies under the sway of the wicked one.” This is becoming more and more
apparent, and Isaiah’s words seem a poignant description of the world we’re
living in:

“Woe to those who
call evil good and good evil,

who change darkness into light and light into darkness,

who change bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter!”

And as we see, with great pain, the world unravelling, our heart cries to God for mercy.

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!

The person who composed this song requested mercy for
Israel, for Yerushalayim, the city of peace that is under attack. We see
suffering all around us and cry for mercy for our

people. Our friends and family, our neighbors, our country,
our churches, the unsaved people we know and those we don’t... We cry for
mercy...

And as I was listening, some passages of Scripture came to
mind:

Micah 6:6-8 With what can I come before Adonai to bow down before
God on high? Should I come before him with burnt offerings? with calves in
their first year? Would Adonai take delight in thousands of rams with ten
thousand rivers of olive oil? Could I give my firstborn to pay for my crimes,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

Human being, you have already been told what is good, what Adonai demands of you — no more than to act justly, love grace and walk in purity
with your God.

In keeping with my post of a Jewish song, I’ve just quoted
from the Complete Jewish Bible, but the same passage in the NKJV, for example,
renders the last verse as follows:

He has shown you, O man, what is good;

And what does the Lord require of you

But to do justly,

To love mercy,

And to walk humbly with your God?

And what grips me is the instruction to “love mercy”, or to
“love grace”. Of course we love it when Abba Father shows grace and mercy to
us. We all prefer God dealing with us in His loving mercies than in judgment!
But what He is telling us here is that, just like we love it when He shows
mercy to us, we ought to love showing mercy to others, being gracious when we
deal with fellow sinners. If we understand’s God’s standard of justice and righteousness, of perfect mercy and humility, we
understand we greatly fall short of the perfect model He displayed for us,
Yeshua, our Messiah.

At least I... I’m far from being just and righteous as He
is. I don’t have anything resembling His mercy. And I’m not at all meek and
humble as He is.

So I acknowledge my serious shortcomings in keeping the
commandment to love my neighbor as I love myself. I have strayed from the
straight and narrow and fallen into the trap of self-righteous judgmentalism
and unloving arrogance. I need to return to God. I need His mercy to cleanse me
of these sins and show me how to walk in His perfect will.

Hosea 6:1-6: Come, let us return to Adonai;

for he has torn, and he will heal us;

he has struck, and he will bind our wounds.

After two days, he will revive us;

on the third day, he will raise us up;

and we will live in his presence.

Let us know, let us strive to know Adonai.

That he will come is as certain as morning;

he will come to us like the rain,

like the spring rains that water the earth.

“Efrayim, what should I do to you?

Y’hudah, what should I do to you?

For your ‘faithful love’ is like a morning cloud,

like dew that disappears quickly.

This is why I have cut them to pieces by the prophets,

slaughtered them with the words from my mouth

— the judgment on you shines out like light.

For what I desire is mercy, not sacrifices,

knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Like a dry and weary land, my soul needs God’s restoring
rains. I have been unfruitful, I have experienced great spiritual
drought as the people in Elijah’s time experienced a physical drought. But He has promised to restore those who realize their
condition and become earnest seekers. As certain as the sun rising in the morning is the
coming of the sun of righteousness to those that fear Him and wait upon Him.

Many of us have offered God a fickle kind of love. Like the apostle James reminds us, when we are in two minds,
when we have one foot in God and the other in the world, we are “like a
wave in the sea being tossed and driven by the wind”. Such a person is
“unstable in all his ways”. But God wants us to walk in His ways all the time,
not just when we feel especially “inspired” to do so.

And one thing that should be a characteristic of us
believers in Yeshua is, precisely, mercy. We of all people should be gracious
and merciful. We should imitate Him who showed to us a mercy we didn’t deserve.

Please meditate on Matthew 9, which I’m quoting now from the
NKJV:

10 Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house,
that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His
disciples.

11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His
disciples,

“Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

12 When Jesus heard that, He said to them,

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those
who are sick.

13 But go and learn what this means:

‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’

For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to
repentance.”

Fellow brother or sister, read this again in the CJB
version:

“The ones who need a doctor aren’t the healthy but the sick.

As for you, go and learn what this means:

‘I want compassion rather than animal-sacrifices.’

For I didn’t come to call the ‘righteous,’ but sinners!”

If you can admit you haven’t been as merciful and
compassionate as you should,

please come to the throne of grace, where abundant mercy
will be shown to you.

God will help you! Ask God to put His agape love in you!

More than ever, this dying world needs compassionate,
merciful, humble and righteous people living out the Gospel they preach.

2 comments:

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,who change darkness into light and light into darkness,who change bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter!”

This reminds me of the USA presidential candidates' debates on TV. I started to watch it and I had to turn it off when I remembered Paul's words,

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." (Phil 4:8, KJ2000)

You are so right! These days everything is getting confused. With grief, I find that many in the visible church have been overcome by a spirit of drunkenness instead of hearing the warning to be sober-minded. Many cannot really discern the times we're in. Many are still in the "let's drink and be merry" stage of superficial Christianity, at best.

I've been posting some on Facebook on this USA election. Perhaps because I'm not American, I can see things with a more objective eye, and to me, it is mind boggling to see so many in the Evangelical community rallying around Trump, and supporting him in spite of all the nasty things that have come out.

Once again, I can see the result of not abiding in His word:

It is better to trust in the LordThan to put confidence in man.It is better to trust in the LordThan to put confidence in princes.

This is pure and simple idolatry! And for this, the USA will face God's judgment. I hope that He will have mercy and wake up His children. I believe Clinton will probably get elected, and though her acting skills are better, the situation doesn't look good.

And yet, what you say is so true... We're not to meditate on evil, to ruminate negative thoughts. More than ever, we need to listen to God's voice! And we need to be merciful towards those who are falling and help them be restored.

This is what the Holy Spirit is telling me we have to seek:Jude's epistle reads,20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 22 And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

James' letter ends like this,19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

And Paul also speaks about being merciful in Galatians 6.Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

As God has been merciful with us, we need to be gentle, merciful and forgiven with others, and if at all possible, try to restore our brothers and sisters who have fallen. The ones who definitely don't want to repent... we leave judgment to God.